Ollie Bennett, from MiPower, a company that specialises in installing solar panels, said he had not seen anything like the new cells on the market.

"I think this is a really good idea and it could be a forerunner," he said.

Dr Snaith said the team had still had some work to do on improving its efficiency.

"But coupled with our extremely low cost of manufacture and processing and the ongoing research effort to improve the overall performance of the device, we think it's only a short while till our performance will be competitive," he said.